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Abstract
Recently, standards and guides have been developed to assess the service life of buildings. During design and operation of
buildings, focus is mainly on the cost of constructing and operating the building than on its service life and tools; making service
life operational in economical assessments are therefore needed. Development of such a tool is performed after a description of
the current standards and suggestions for their improvement. Use of the tool is illustrated by performing an economical assessment,
including the effects of service life, on an innovative low-slope roofing insulation system. The assessment reveals that the
innovative roofing system has a lower total cost than traditional systems as it is prepared for repair and maintenance. 2002
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Service life prediction; Economical assessment; Prepared for repair and maintenance
1. Introduction
During the last 10 years, national standards have been
developed in order to assess the expected service life of
building materials and constructions and work is still
progressing at the international level. Besides the current
and upcoming standards, several methodologies have
been developed or suggested at the national, international or individual level. By using these standards or
methodologies, designers can estimate the service life
of material or components or estimate the risk of failure
throughout the entire life of the material or component.
However, during design or operation of buildings, the
building designer or operator is more focused on the
cost of constructing, operating, maintaining and replacing components than on the service life of these components. Therefore, tools that can translate service life
related parameters into economical terms are needed.
2. Standards, guides and methods for assessing service life
2.1. National standards
Service life prediction or demand for durability has
been treated in numerous countries in their standards
E-mail address: claus.rudbeck@rockwool.com (C. Rudbeck).
0950-0618/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 5 0 - 0 6 1 8 0 2 . 0 0 0 0 3 - X
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minimum replacement costs and the maximum replacement cost throughout the life of the building (or another
specified period). The financial consequences of unexpected replacements through a period can therefore not
come as a surprise for the clientyoperator and money
can then be set-aside early on for replacement. It is the
same mentality that lies behind insurance: The policy
owner is insured against financial disaster by setting
aside money (paying the insurance premium) in time.
6. Including service life in an economical assessment
of a dryable low-slope roofing insulation system
To illustrate the use of the method which has been
described, the methods has been used to assess the
economical performance of a dryable low-slope roofing
insulation system, an economical performance which is
then compared to the performance of a traditional lowslope roofing insulation system.
6.1. Description of traditional low-slope roofing insulation system
Low-slop roofing insulation systems are often used
on commercial, institutional or industrial buildings, as
the use of pitched roofs would pose severe difficulties.
If pitched roofs were to be applied to large industrial
buildings, the construction of such roofs would be
difficult especially with regard to the valleys, which are
needed to collect and transport water to the gutters.
Low-slope roofs are constructed with layers of mineral
wool or polystyrene insulation being placed on top of
the deck which is normally made of concrete or steel.
A section of a typical build-up of a low-slope roofing
insulation system is shown in Fig. 1.
The normal application of a low-slope roofing insulation system begins after the completion of the deck.
To hinder vapor transport from the inside into the
insulation, a vapor retarder is placed on top of the deck.
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Table 1
Investment costs for different parts of dryable roofing system with 195 mm insulation
Building materialycomponent
Euroym2
Low slope roof insulation system incl. vapor retarder and roofing membrane
Moisture indicator produced in strips placed per 1 meter on the roof
Inlets and outlets for ventilation system
Construction of grooves in the insulation panels
Total costs
61.2
0.3
0.3
2.2
64.0
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Table 2
Net present value of the difference cost aspects and the total cost for
the traditional roofing system and for the dryable roofing system. Both
systems use 195 mm of insulation
Aspect
Investment
Operation (heating of building)
Maintenance
Replacement
Total cost
Dryable
system
61.2
21.2
9.8
72.0
164.2
64.0
15.9
9.8
36.0
125.7
Fig. 2. Distribution of net present value of the replacement cost for a traditional roofing insulation system during a 60-year period. The costs are
assessed using a Monte Carlo simulation.
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